Of Burnt Cakes and the Best of Intentions
by snarkysweetness
Summary: Skye's Mother's Day plans for May go awry when she proves to be very much like her surrogate mother in the kitchen.


**Title:** Of Burnt Cakes and the Best of Intentions  
 **Author:** snarkysweetness  
 **Rating:** PG  
 **Characters:** Skye  & May with Coulson; mild Philinda but mostly mommy/daughter with daddy  
 **Summary:** Skye's Mother's Day plans for May go awry when she proves to be very much like her surrogate mother in the kitchen.  
 **Warnings:** None.  
 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing.  
 **Author's Notes:** Happy Mother's Day to my fave fictional mama, Melinda May.

Skye stared down at the mess in front of her and her chest began to shake as fat tears rolled down her cheeks. This was supposed to be perfect; a way for her to try to undo some of the damage she'd done recently. But as per usual she was a big, disappointing failure.

"Skye? What is all of this?"

She glanced up to find a confused May in the kitchen and she fought back more tears. She glanced around at the mess she'd made with the burnt, mangled cake she'd destroyed at the center of it all. She hiccupped, not sure how to answer.

How was she supposed to explain to her that she'd wanted to something special for her and she'd somehow managed to screw it up? How did one even fail to make a cake out of a box correctly? She was a joke; no wonder May didn't want her around.

"I-" another hiccup, "Um…" She glanced down at the card sticking out from under the unused icing tubes and retrieved it, holding it out sheepishly. "Happy Mother's Day?"

This was stupid. She was stupid. Why had she even done this? It wasn't like she knew how to-

May surprised her by engulfing her in a tight embrace. Skye froze for a moment, sure she was dreaming, but the familiar scent of her peach blossom shower gel filled Skye's nostrils and she realized this was not a dream. Skye hugged her back tightly, burying her face in the crook of May's neck, more tears falling from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Skye whispered, her voice sounding like one of those squeaky toys she never had as a child. "I wanted everything to be perfect."

"It is," May insisted, stroking Skye's hair.

"No, it's terrible. I messed everything up."

May gave her a squeeze and brushed her lips over Skye's temple as she pulled away (which was enough to bring a fresh wave of tears). May used her thumb to wipe away tears from Skye's cheek and met her eyes.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Skye."

Skye knew now they both weren't referring to the cake.

"And I appreciate the effort; you tried something new, I'm proud of you." May gave Skye a small smile and while May's smiles were a rare, mysterious thing they always lit up the room.

Skye sniffled, wondering how she could have ever mistaken Jiaying's lies for love when May had spent the past two years nurturing her and mentoring her and being the mother she'd always wanted.

She was such an idiot.

Skye began to cry again and May pulled her against her chest, shushing her. "Mom," Skye muttered mid-cry, without meaning to, and immediately felt horrified. Every time she'd said that word to someone in the past it had always gone wrong; when Mrs. Brody had sent her back and then Jiaying had turned out to be a monster. The last thing she needed was to scare May away.

May pulled away and Skye prepared herself for the worst but it never came. Instead she took Skye's face in her hands with a smile. "I love you," she whispered, reaching up to brush her forehead. When she pulled her hand back her fingers were covered in chocolate and she shook her head, trying not to laugh. "Even if you are hopeless as I am in the kitchen. I'll help you clean up and then we can raid the freezer for Fitz's ice cream stash."

Skye couldn't speak so she simply nodded as May began to clean up. She wiped at her eyes, still embarrassed she'd even done any of this to begin with, let alone messed it up. She did smile when she saw May had carefully set her card aside, away from the disaster zone.

Third time had turned out to be the charm.

"Ma-mom?" Skye called from where she had just dumped the inedible cake into the trash bin.

"Yes?" May glanced up from the sink with red eyes.

She hesitated for a moment but decided to go all in and rushed to her side to give her a bone-crushing hug. "I love you too."

May smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Does this mean you won't run away again?"

The guilt returned and Skye looked up at her with shame. "I know I mess-"

"Letting you go was the hardest thing I've ever done; I can't do it again."

May turned back to the sink and Skye knew the conversation was over. She knew she'd hurt her but she was forgiven. Skye needed to let it go too, she couldn't change what she'd done, she could only move forward.

Skye leaned up and kissed May's cheek before returning to clean-up duty (but not before catching a smile form on May's lips).

"What the hell happened to my kitchen?"

Skye gave Coulson an innocent smile, trying to think of a good enough explanation but May beat her to the punch.

"Your daughter made me a cake for Mother's Day which is more than you've done for me today, Phillip. I think your dad owes us a run to the city for take-out and ice cream, what do you say baby girl?"

Skye did her best to keep from chuckling and nodded seriously. "Mom's right, dad. I also think she deserves an edible cake since she puts up with us all year."

Coulson stared between the two of them with his mouth open and a mixture of confusion and horror on his face. "That…I don't…there's chocolate on my ceiling, Melinda!"

Skye batted her eyes with a pout. "But…ice cream, daddy."

"In a waffle cone and we can clean the ceiling tomorrow, dear," May teased seriously.

The vein in his forehead throbbed visibly but he knew better than to argue with both of them. "Fine," he replied through gritted teeth, having resigned himself to their trolling. "We'll get Chinese take-out and stop at the store for a cake and a few gallons of ice cream; I'm not going to exclude the other kids."

Skye smirked and finished wiping down the counter. She passed by Coulson and kissed his cheek. "I'll get the SUV ready."

"Pushover," she heard May tease and Skye knew if she looked back they'd be making out and she just had to look to be sure and sure enough they were totally sucking face. She ducked her head with red cheeks and a smile and left them to it.

Maybe her stupid idea hadn't been so stupid; after all she was getting ice cream out of it and it was hard not to feel happy when ice cream was involved.

Plus, she'd found her right fit and she knew now her family wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't a bad way to end the first Mother's Day she'd ever celebrated. And next year she'd just buy a cake and spare herself the angst of attempting to work the kitchen because when it came to the homemaking stuff she and May weren't so different.


End file.
